Prosecutors believe human error caused German train crash

Rescue personnel stand in front of two trains that collided head-on near Bad Aibling, southern Germany.

A train crash which killed eleven people in southern Germany last week was the result of human error, said Bavarian state prosecutors on Tuesday.

The worker is a married 39-year-old who finished his training in 1997, according to a joint press conference by the prosecutor’s office in Traunstein and police in Bavaria.

“There is no evidence of technical problems…”

Investigators now believe the crash was caused by human error by the train dispatcher.

Authorities said they have launched a negligent homicide investigation against the track controller.

Giese stressed that the tragedy could have been avoided had the train controller followed all the rules.

The commuter trains collided on a single track near Bad Aibling, around 40 miles southeast of Munich on 9 February.

More than 80 passengers were injured and 11 died in the horrific accident.

Train dispatchers are typically trasked with communicating and directing the movement of trains over the tracks within their designated areas.

Fellow prosecutor Juergen Branz added: “What we have at the moment is a awful error in this particular situation”.

It left tough questions to be answered about the safety of the German rail network, which is fitted with safety equipment that is supposed to make head-on collisions impossible.

He was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, prosecutors said.

The country’s deadliest post-war accident happened in 1998, when a high-speed ICE train linking Munich and Hamburg derailed in the northern town of Eschede, killing 101 people and injuring 88.